Glasgow

As the Tickets Scotland shop in Edinburgh didn't have tickets for the forthcoming Die So Fluid gig in Glasgow, I headed through to Weegieland on 22nd October, 2011, to purchase a ticket. Seeing as I'd forked out over £11 for the train-fare, I decided to have a wee stride around the city centre whilst there, and began by wandering up Sauchiehall Street to see if I could find some charidee shops to have a rake around in. I only found one, and it didn't have the items I was looking for: candles; my living-room, for the warming-up of. As ever, I was struck by the ugliness of Glasgow. That's not to say it doesn't have some lovely old buildings. It does: plenty of them. According to the plaque on the wall at its near end, this building in Sauchiehall Street is a 'Glasgow Landmark'. In fact, it is the Grecian Chambers; the work of Alexander 'Greek' Thomson, the famous Glasgow architect. In style, it certainly typifies the mid-Victorian Glasgow style of architecture: it couldn't be anywhere else. And right next to it...

...This monstrosity. This building - the Glasgow Dental Hospital and School - is probably no more or less hideous than numerous other modern buildings to be seen in Glasgow and every other city in the country, but what makes it such an eyesore is its total lack of congruity with its surroundings. The whole centre of Glasgow has been ruined by intrusive, incongruous modern buildings such as this. It's almost as if the powers-that-be in Glasgow are unwilling to allow anything to be built in the city unless it dominates and clashes with its surroundings in the most jarring, unsympathetic manner possible. How do people so clueless and out-of-touch come to be architects and planners? 22nd October, 2011.

The grotesque Glasgow Dental Hospital and School in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, on 22nd October, 2011.

The ABC in Sauchiehall Street, advertising a performance by possibly one of the most boring bands in the entire history of the planet. Actually, I quite like one or two of Ash's songs, but I've noticed that the CD racks in charity shops always contain several Ash singles and albums that apparently can't even be given away! 22nd October, 2011.

The Solid Rock Cafe near the foot of Hope Street, Glasgow, 22nd October, 2011. My attention was caught by the window-art which features portraits of Lemmy, Alex Harvey, Ronnie James Dio, Ozzy Osbourne, Slash, Rob Zombie (I think), Jimi Hendrix, Alice Cooper, various members of Slipknot, and (possibly, with mohican) Joe Strummer. Of those, I suspect the least-recognisable to non-Scots and thae young anes will be Alex Harvey, who died as long ago as 1982.

The Highlandman's Umbrella, the bridge that carries Central Station over Argyle Street; still dark and dinsmal but now a much more pleasant place than it used to be. View from the corner of Oswald Street and Argyle Street on 22nd October, 2011.

The Highlandman's Umbrella, viewed from the corner of Oswald Street and Argyle Street on 22nd October, 2011.

View down the River Clyde from King George V Bridge towards the Tradeston and Kingston Bridges on 22nd October, 2011.

A view down the none-too-picturesque River Clyde from King George V Bridge towards the Tradeston and Kingston Bridges on 22nd October, 2011.

View down the River Clyde from King George V Bridge towards the Tradeston and Kingston Bridges on 22nd October, 2011.